What I’m really trying to do is create unique characters. Having originally asked lead designer Yoji Shinkawa for a “more erotic” character, he then attempted to clarify his statement, saying through a translator that “Maybe the phrase ‘erotic’ wasn’t really what I was trying to say. Only days before his famous words and deeds quote, Kojima had fumbled over himself in attempts to address negative reactions to Quiet’s design. So fine, sure, her fictional condition might justify her appearance, but you wrote the story that way, my dude! There was a good reason for her appearance, he announced, and when we discovered the truth, we would be “feel ashamed of our words and deeds.” As anyone with two brain cells left to rub against one another would realize, though, Quiet is a fictional character who lives within a fictional world designed by Kojima. When the discourse first broke out around Quiet’s design, Kojima didn’t take it sitting down. Maybe it’s possible that whereas Bayonetta is a parody of femininity in the mode of Barbara Streisand drag, Quiet is a parody - intentional or not - of heterosexual male desire. Maybe we’re ready to consider that like Bayonetta, another contentious woman character of the past decade, Quiet’s design is too over the top to be accidental.
(If NieR: Automata was released two years earlier, 2B might have been in the same position.) It’s been years since, and maybe we’re ready to take another look. In the midst of high-profile conversations about women in games, Quiet stood out as a particularly egregious example of objectification of female characters. It was the design of a character named Quiet, a lithe sniper whose outfit amounted to torn tights and a tiny bikini top - not exactly standard issue gear for field missions in Afghanistan. In the run-up to Metal Gear Solid V‘s release, one thing stirred more controversy than any other element of the game. I am probably too Kojimapilled but I really believe Quiet was him doing a caricature of what he thought straight guy gamers wanted I never finished writing that piece, but I wanted to share some of it here. Earlier today, Felix Biederman tweeted about the character Quiet from Metal Gear Solid V, and it reminded me of some thoughts I’d had on her after finally playing the game a few years ago.